SM ICG Holds 'Industry Day' Outreach Event with European Aviation Industry

The Safety Management International Collaboration Group (SM ICG), a group of 12 aviation regulatory bodies, held its second Industry Day with representatives from 19 European aviation industry organizations on April 19, 2013 in The Hague, Netherlands. Industry Day marks a unique opportunity for aviation service providers to hear directly from authorities that are working together and for those authorities to receive feedback on SM ICG products. The full day session, hosted by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Netherlands, included seven presentations and an open discussion on safety performance measurement and how aviation service providers manage interfaces with their own contractors, partners, and customers.

The SM ICG was established in 2009 to promote a common understanding of safety management principles and requirements, facilitating their application across the international aviation community. Since its formation, the group has published several products and has begun to focus more on outreach to the greater international aviation community. The SM ICG held its first Industry Day in Ottawa, Canada in October 2012 during its semi-annual meeting with representatives from the Canadian aviation industry.

Rob Huyser, Acting Director General for Civil Aviation in The Netherlands, kicked off the day by acknowledging that both aviation service providers and regulators face challenges in safety management implementation. He pointed out that "In this room, we have nearly half of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Safety Management Panel members that have been working on Annex 19 - Safety Management. There is quite an opportunity to do some serious networking today."

After opening remarks, Simon Roberts, UK CAA SMS Programme Manager and Chair of European Human Factors Advisory Group, gave an overview of the SM ICG and its work. Five industry representatives (Job Brüggen, Air Traffic Control Netherlands; Hendrik Boedecker, Lufthansa Technik; Robert Jan de Boer, University of Amsterdam Study of KLM Ground Services; Sam Espig, Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO); and Eric Kruijsen, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines) briefed their experiences with safety performance measurement, as did Dr. Don Arendt from the Federal Aviation Administration. Industry Day speaker biographies and all presentations are available for download at the bottom of this page.

Industry Day participants discussed both safety performance measurement and other safety management challenges. Topics included the coordination/harmonization across several air navigation service providers in Europe, approvals from multiple States looking at a service provider safety management system (SMS), the development of performance targets that are both measurable and meaningful, and turning data into intelligence.

Michael Hickey of the European Low Fares Airline Association found the discussion very useful and thought it was good for operators to hear best practices. Jacqueline Booth, Chief of Technical Program Evaluation and Coordination at Transport Canada and current SM ICG Chair, thanked industry participants and concluded, "As we SM ICG members are working together toward a harmonized approach to SMS and the State Safety Programme (SSP), we want to hear about your experiences. Insight into your successes and challenges will help us focus our efforts and develop products that will be useful to the global aviation community."

Briefing Abstracts and Industry Presenter Biographies

Job Brüggen

Safety Manager, Air Traffic Control, The Netherlands Safety Management of a Functional Airspace Block: A Safety Management System Between Seven Air Navigation Service Providers” Bio: Job Brüggen holds a masters degree from Delft University of Technology in Aerospace Engineering. In 1986 he started working for the National Aerospace Laboratory where he later became the head of the Air Transport Division. His particular interest in safety led him to Air Traffic Control the Netherlands, to become their first safety manager in 2002. He is particularly known for his activities in Just Culture developments and was one of the first to demonstrate the detrimental effect of prosecution of air traffic controllers on incident reporting. In 2003 he re-created the CANSO Safety Standing Committee and chaired it for six years. He is currently leading the effort for the FAB Europe Central safety management activities. He also advises in the health care industry on safety matters with a particular focus on safety leadership.

Hendrik Boedecker

Senior Engineer Regulatory Compliance & Authorities Liaison at Lufthansa Technik Measurement and Driving of Safety Performance Abstract: This presentation shows the implementation history and the structure of the implemented Safety Management system at Lufthansa Technik Group. By processing this system you are able to gather and use safety data for the continuous improvement of the LHT safety level. Safety performance examples will be presented.

Bio: Hendrik Boedecker graduated in Business Administration (main field: Logistics and industrial management). He joined Lufthansa Technik in 2006 and held several positions including logistics (Hamburg) and Lean Management (Los Angeles), before he moved to the quality management department in 2008. He is responsible for aviation authority liaison and regulatory compliance management for the entire Lufthansa Technik Group (international organisational approvals from 45+ countries). He is the project leader for the introduction and on-going development of Lufthansa Technik’s Safety Management System

Robert Jan de Boer

Lector Aviation Engineering Introduction of Ramp-LOSA at KLM Ground Services Abstract: Newly developed by the Texas University are Line Operations Safety Assessments (LOSA) for ramp en maintenance environments, that allow objective feedback on the effect of safety interventions. The research group for Aviation Engineering at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences has used the original platform LOSA material and tailored these to the specific circumstances at KLM. Results to date show that with these modifications, platform LOSA is a useful tool to quantify safety performance and to generate trend data. The effect of safety interventions can now be monitored. Bio: Robert J. de Boer MSc PhD (1965) was trained as an aerospace engineer at Delft University of Technology. He majored in man-machine systems and graduated cum laude in 1988 on the thresholds of the vestibular organ. After several years in line management and consultancy, he transferred to Fokker Aerostructures in 1999. Here he was asked to develop the Program Management methodology for Fokker in compliance with aerospace requirements, as a prerequisite for Fokker to participate on the A380 program. This led to the appointment as the Director of Engineering in 2002. In this role he supported and guided an increasing number of engineers (up to 300) occupied in a large number of new design projects across the globe. These experiences have led to his current scientific interest in the effectiveness of teams in demanding industries. Since early 2007 he has returned to consulting, combining this with research at the Delft University of Technology towards a PhD (achieved in May 2012). In September 2009 Robert was appointed Professor ("lector") of Aviation Engineering at the Amsterdam University of Applied Science (Hogeschool van Amsterdam).

Sam Espig

Head of Future Safety Strategy Development CANSO/NATS CANSO Global’s Approach to Safety Performance Measurement Abstract: Do we really know the safety of ATM operations? Do we understand the relationship between our actions and their effects on safety? Are we targeting the right safety improvements? The CANSO Global approach to safety performance measurement outlines how we might obtain a better understanding of safety in the future and begin to tackle these questions from an alternative perspective. Bio: Sam Espig BEng(Hons) PhD - Sam is a safety manager within the NATS Directorate of Safety. He has extensive safety management experience and has worked in a wide variety of safety critical industries for almost 20 years. For the majority of his career he has worked for NATS in a wide range of positions, which include Technical Safety Lead for the opening of the new Prestwick ATC Unit, Safety Manager of several highly complex ATM projects, Safety Specialist responsible for the development and approval of the Swanwick Unit Safety Case. Sam is currently responsible for the development of the NATS Safety Strategy for 2025 and the ensuring that the SESAR safety methodology aligns with NATS needs.

Eric Kruijsen

Flight Safety Manager at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Derivation of Safety Metrics Bio: Eric Kruijsen needed prescription glasses just before finishing high school. This smashed his hopes of becoming a pilot. He then went on to obtain a Master’s in Aerospace Technology at Delft University of Technology. After graduating with honors in 1990, to his great joy he was sent to the Dutch Government Pilot School, with glasses and all. He joined KLM in 1994 as a line pilot and combined this for some 10 years with scientific work as a research test pilot at the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory NLR. He participated in several large research projects, on human factors, microgravity research, simulation and flight safety. After a seven-year stint as a technical pilot on the Boeing 737, he became the Flight Safety Manager some 2 years ago: just in time to dive into SMS development at KLM.

Download Presentations

• Full Industry Day Article
• Briefing Abstracts and Presenter Biographies
• SM ICG Overview Presentation by Simon Roberts (UK CAA)
• Safety Management of a Functional Airspace Block by Job Brüggen (ATC Netherlands)
• Measurement and Driving of Safety Performance by Hendrik Boedecker (Lufthansa Technik)
• Introduction of Ramp-Line Operations Safety Assessments (LOSA) at KLM Ground Services by Robert Jan de Boer (University of Amsterdam)
• CANSO Global’s Approach to Safety Performance Measurement by Sam Espig (CANSO)
• Derivation of Safety Metrics by Eric Kruijsen (KLM Royal Dutch Airlines)
• Safety Performance Measurement Guidelines for Service Providers by Don Arendt (FAA)

Industry Day Event Archive

The Safety Management Systems International Collaboration Group (SM ICG), a group of 12 aviation regulatory bodies, was established in 2009. Since its formation, the group has produced several products and has begun to focus more on outreach to the greater international aviation community. To that end, the SM ICG has begun holding Industry Day events during its semi-annual meetings. Read more about other SM ICG Industry Day events